Joshua Hall Bates
|died= |image= |caption=Joshua H. Bates |nickname= |placeofbirth=Boston, Massachusetts |placeofdeath=Cincinnati, Ohio |placeofburial= Spring Grove Cemetery |placeofburial_label= Place of burial |allegiance= United States of America Union |branch= United States Army Union Army |serviceyears=1837 – 1842; 1861 |rank=Brigadier General |unit= Ohio state militia |commands= |battles=American Civil War • No combat duty |awards= |relations= }} Joshua Hall Bates (March 5, 1817 – July 26, 1908) was a lawyer, politician, and general in the Union Army during the early part of the American Civil War. He was a leading recruiter and organizer of many of the first regiments of Ohio troops who volunteered after President Abraham Lincoln's call to arms in the spring of 1861. Birth and early years Bates was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1837, and was breveted as a second lieutenant in the artillery. He subsequently served five years in the Regular army, including spending time in Florida in 1837-38 during the Seminole Wars. He was assigned to Cleveland, Ohio, during the Canada border disturbances from 1839 to 1841. After resigning his commission, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar.Cincinnati CWRT Civil War service Bates joined the Ohio state militia and became a brigadier general. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was assigned to Department of the Sanitary Commission and served as the commander of Camp Harrison near Cincinnati. Along with two other militia generals, he helped establish Camp Dennison, a sprawling military complex north of Cincinnati. He helped organize fifteen regiments of infantry for service in the field. Believing that he was too old at age forty-four to go into combat, Bates resigned his commission as brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers on August 27, 1861, but remained active in the militia. As president of the Cincinnati Committee of Public Safety, Bates commanded a division when Cincinnati was threatened by Confederates forces in the summer of 1863.Find-a-Grave One of the earthwork fortifications in northern Kentucky which defended Cincinnati was named Bates Battery in his honor.Defense of Cincinnati Again returning to civilian life, Bates resumed his law practice in Cincinnati. He became a member of the Ohio State Senate in 1864 and served until 1866. He was again a state senator from 1876-78. He was the president of the Cincinnati Bar Association from 1881-82.Cincinnati Bar Association Bates died in Cincinnati at the age of ninety-one in 1908. He is among several former Union Army generals who were laid to rest in the city's famed Spring Grove Cemetery. See also *List of American Civil War generals References * Cincinnati Civil War Round Table * Cincinnati Bar Association * Retrieved on 2009-01-03 * Defense of Cincinnati Notes Category:Union Army generals Category:People of Ohio in the American Civil War Category:Cincinnati, Ohio in the American Civil War Category:United States Military Academy alumni Category:United States Army officers Category:People of the Seminole Wars Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:19th-century people Category:Ohio lawyers Category:Ohio State Senators Category:American militia generals Category:Burials at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati Category:1817 births Category:1908 deaths